| 1. |
- Anckarsäter, Henrik, 1966, et al.
(författare)
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Mental disorder is a cause of crime: The cornerstone of forensic psychiatry
- 2009
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Ingår i: International Journal of Law and Psychiatry. - : Elsevier BV. - 0160-2527 .- 1873-6386. ; 32:6, s. 342-347
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The assumption that mental disorder is a cause of crime is the foundation of forensic psychiatry, but conceptual. epistemological. and empirical analyses show that neither mental nor crime, or the causation implied, are clear-cut concepts. "Mental" denotes heterogeneous aspects of a per-son such as inner experiences. cognitive abilities, and behaviour patterns described in a non-physical vocabulary. In psychology and psychiatry, mental describes law-bound, caused aspects of human functioning that are predictable and generalizable. Problems defined as mental disorders are end-points of dimensional inter-individual differences rather than natural categories. Deficits in cognitive faculties, such as attention, verbal understanding, impulse control, and reality assessment, may be susceptibility factors that relate to behaviours (Such as crimes) by increasing the probability (risk) for a negative behaviour or constitute causes in the sense of INUS conditions (insufficient but Non-redundant parts of Unnecessary but Sufficient conditions). Attributing causes to complex behaviours such as crimes is not an unbiased process, and mental disorders will attract disproportionate attention when it comes to explanations of behaviours that we wish to distance ourselves from. Only by rigorous interpretation of what psychiatry actually can inform us about, using empirical analyses of quantified aggressive antisocial behaviours and their possible explanatory factors, can we gain a clearer notion of the relationship between mental disorder and crime. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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| 2. |
- Bergenheim, Åsa, 1954-
(författare)
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Sexual assault, irresistible impulses, and forensic psychiatry in Sweden
- 2014
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Ingår i: International Journal of Law and Psychiatry. - : Elsevier. - 0160-2527 .- 1873-6386. ; 37:1, s. 99-108
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- After forensic psychiatry was firmly established in Sweden in the 1930s, many rapists and individuals charged with assaulting children underwent a forensic psychiatric examination. The physicians found that most of them had not been “in control” of their senses or not “in complete control” of their senses at the time of the crime. If the court ordered a forensic psychiatric examination, the defendant had a very good chance of either being discharged or having his sentence reduced considerably. By the 1950s psychological perspectives began to dominate in forensic psychiatry. In the forensic records of the 1950s we can notice a shift from a biomedical to a socio-psychological perspective, and crime was increasingly related to conditions that were not seen as mental derangement from a legal point of view. As a result, it became less and less common, from the 1950s onwards, for sentences to be commuted or defendants discharged.
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| 3. |
- Dahlin, Moa Kindstrom, et al.
(författare)
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Mentally disordered criminal offenders : Legal and criminological perspectives
- 2009
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Ingår i: International Journal of Law and Psychiatry. - : Elsevier BV. - 0160-2527 .- 1873-6386. ; 32:6, s. 377-382
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Legal research in Sweden has traditionally focused on a systematization of the legal rules and their practical application, while the task of studying the effects of the application of the laws has been handed over to other branches of the social sciences. In contrast, new legal theories focusing on proactive and therapeutic dimensions in law have gained increasing attention in the international arena. These approaches may be better suited for evaluating legislation governing compulsory psychiatric care. Theoretical discussions and studies of causal mechanisms underlying criminal behaviour, as well as the implementation and value of instruments for predicting behaviour, are relevant to contemporary criminological research. Criminal behaviour varies across different groups of perpetrators, and the causes can be sought in the interplay between the individual and social factors. Multi-disciplinary efforts, integrating research from forensic psychiatry, psychology, sociology, and criminology, would be beneficial in leading to a better understanding of the causes underlying criminal behaviour.
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| 4. |
- Höglund, Pontus, et al.
(författare)
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Accountability and psychiatric disorders: How do forensic psychiatric professionals think?
- 2009
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Ingår i: International journal of law and psychiatry. - : Elsevier BV. - 0160-2527 .- 1873-6386. ; 32:6, s. 355-361
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Swedish penal law does not exculpate on the grounds of diminished accountability; persons judged to suffer from severe mental disorder are sentenced to forensic psychiatric care instead of prison. Re-introduction of accountability as a condition for legal responsibility has been advocated, not least by forensic psychiatric professionals. To investigate how professionals in forensic psychiatry would assess degree of accountability based on psychiatric diagnoses and case vignettes, 30 psychiatrists, 30 psychologists, 45 nurses, and 45 ward attendants from five forensic psychiatric clinics were interviewed. They were asked (i) to judge to which degree (on a dimensional scale from 1 to 5) each of 12 psychiatric diagnoses might affect accountability, (ii) to assess accountability from five case vignettes, and (iii) to list further factors they regarded as relevant for their assessment of accountability. All informants accepted to provide a dimensional assessment of accountability on this basis and consistently found most types of mental disorders to reduce accountability, especially psychotic disorders and dementia. Other factors thought to be relevant were substance abuse, social network, personality traits, social stress, and level of education.
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| 5. |
- Radovic, Susanna, 1969, et al.
(författare)
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Explanations for violent behaviour - An interview study among forensic in-patients
- 2014
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Ingår i: International Journal of Law and Psychiatry. - : Elsevier BV. - 0160-2527 .- 1873-6386. ; 37:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The alleged relation between mental disorder and violent criminal behaviour has been investigated mainly from an epidemiological perspective. Population-based registry studies have shown that violence occurs more frequently among people with mental disorders, like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, compared with control subjects, but that the increased risk is largely mediated by drug abuse and socio-economic deprivation. The aim of this study was to explore how patients who have committed violent or sexual crimes and have been sentenced to forensic psychiatric care by a Swedish court of law construed their criminal actions in terms of causes. Forty-six participants from six different Swedish forensic psychiatric clinics were included in the study. A semi-structured interview study was conducted and the data was analysed using a thematic analysis. A large group of the participants did not believe that the mental disorder played any role in the criminal events. Contributing causes that were mentioned were drug abuse and social factors.
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| 6. |
- Svennerlind, Christer, 1963, et al.
(författare)
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Mentally disordered criminal offenders in the Swedish criminal system
- 2010
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Ingår i: International Journal of Law and Psychiatry. - : Elsevier BV. - 0160-2527. ; 33:4, s. 220-226
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Historically, the Swedish criminal justice system conformed to other Western penal law systems, exempting severely mentally disordered offenders considered to be unaccountable. However, in 1965 Sweden enforced a radical penal law abolishing exceptions based on unaccountability. Mentally disordered offenders have since then been subjected to various forms of sanctions motivated by the offender's need for care and aimed at general prevention. Until 2008, a prison sentence was not allowed for offenders found to have committed a crime under the influence of a severe mental disorder, leaving forensic psychiatric care the most common sanction in this group. Such offenders are nevertheless held criminally responsible, liable for damages, and encumbered with a criminal record. In most cases, such offenders must not be discharged without the approval of an administrative court. Two essentially modern principles may be discerned behind the “Swedish model”: first, an attempted abolishment of moral responsibility, omitting concepts such as guilt, accountability, atonement, and retribution, and, second, the integration of psychiatric care into the societal reaction and control systems. The model has been much criticized, and several governmental committees have suggested a re-introduction of a system involving the concept of accountability. This review describes the Swedish special criminal justice provisions on mentally disordered offenders including the legislative changes in 1965 along with current proposals to return to a pre-1965 system, presents current Swedish forensic psychiatric practice and research, and discusses some of the ethical, political, and metaphysical presumptions that underlie the current system.
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| 7. |
- Nilsson, Thomas, 1954, et al.
(författare)
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The precarious practice of forensic psychiatric risk assessments
- 2009
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Ingår i: International Journal of Law and Psychiatry. - : Elsevier BV. - 0160-2527. ; 32:6, s. 400-407
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The development of forensic psychiatric risk assessments is discussed from a clinical point of view using the example of Sweden. A central task in forensic psychiatry has traditionally been to identify dangerous, mentally disordered subjects considered to be prone to commit violent acts. Over time, “dangerousness” has been reworded into “risk”. Nevertheless, such assessments have generally been based on the psychiatric factors characterising the individual patient, while group interaction, situational factors, or social and cultural circumstances, such as the availability of alcohol and drugs, have been largely overlooked. That risk assessments have a focused on people with a diagnosis of “mental disorder” and been used as grounds for coercive measures and integrity violations has somehow been accepted as a matter of course in the public and political debate. Even the basic question whether offenders with a mental disorder are really more prone to criminal recidivism than other offenders seems to have been treated light-handedly and dealt with merely by epidemiological comparisons between groups of persons with broad ranges of psychosocial vulnerability and the general population. Legal texts, instructions and guidelines from the authorities in charge are often vague and general, while actors in the judicial system seem to put their trust in psychiatric opinions. The exchange of professional opinions, general public expectations, and judicial decision processes poses a huge risk for misunderstandings based on divergent expectations and uses of terminology.
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| 8. |
- Malmgren, Helge, 1945, et al.
(författare)
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A philosophical view on concepts in psychiatry
- 2010
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Ingår i: International Journal of Law and Psychiatry. - : Elsevier BV. - 0160-2527. ; 33, s. 66-72
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This essay first outlines a philosophical theory of concepts and then applies it to two areas of relevance to psychiatrists, especially forensic psychiatrists. In the philosophical theory, the respective roles of verbal and non-verbal definitions are illuminated, and the importance of the phenomenon of division of semantic labour is stressed. It is pointed out that vagueness and ambiguity of a term often result when the term is used for several practical purposes at the same time. Such multi-purpose uses of terms may explain both the current problems associated with the Swedish forensic–psychiatric concept of a severe mental disorder and some of the shortcomings of DSM-IV.
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| 9. |
- Radovic, Susanna, 1969, et al.
(författare)
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Introducing a standard of legal insanity: The case of Sweden compared to The Netherlands
- 2015
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Ingår i: International Journal of Law and Psychiatry. - : Elsevier BV. - 0160-2527. ; 40, s. 43-49
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Abstract in UndeterminedA recent governmental report has suggested that the notion of insanity, which has not been a relevant concept in Swedish criminal law for the last 50years, should be reintroduced into the criminal justice system. This move has generated a debate over the most appropriate criteria to be included in a legal standard for insanity. We consider the fundamental question of whether a legal standard is required when introducing insanity, by looking at a legal system in which legal insanity is available but where no standard is used: The Netherlands. Overall, a review of advantages and disadvantages leads to the conclusion that such a standard is necessary. What exactly should that standard be? Is the development of different "grades" of insanity desirable? Legal considerations concerning what is essentially a legal notion should predominate in making these determinations-informed by psychiatric and other relevant scientific findings.
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